An Analysis of The Freedom of Real Apologies

In the podcast, The Freedom of Real Apologies, Krista Tippett interviews Layli Long Soldier, a writer and citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. During the interview, Layli Long Soldier is referes to the congressional apology to native Americans in 2009. She hadn’t heard about the apology for a year, because it was so quiet and not a risk. In the apology, the phrasing of languge used in the speech was very careful. They decided to not use words like “genocide” and instead used words like “conflicts” and “lives were taken on both sides”. This phrasing washes away the violent crimes the Europeans committed against the Native American, and puts a very light quaint view in the events instead. The writers chose to do this, perhaps, to subliminally ignore the real events that occurred.

Specificity is important because generalizing important events takes away its power. In a way, its condescending and belittling of the emotional and intense moments. This is important in our writing, because not specifying events doesn’t give a truthful representation of the event, and makes the source irrelevant.

The structure of this interview is in a question answer format. The tone of the interview is light, and intriguing. The interviewer, Ms. Tippett, is genuinely interested in Ms. Long soldier’s story, and is asking questions to push the interview along. Information to take away from this interview is to research the interviewee’s work beforehand.